


To Infinity and Beyond

by piratekelly



Series: New Favorite Day [8]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: DEREK IS HAPPY, Established Relationship, Feels, Graduation, M/M, Rebuilt Hale House
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-05
Updated: 2019-02-05
Packaged: 2019-10-23 00:35:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17673044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/piratekelly/pseuds/piratekelly
Summary: The after.





	To Infinity and Beyond

It’s a few weeks later, and Derek is sweating as he sits among a sea of people (but more specifically, right next to Stiles’ dad) as he listens to the Beacon Hills High School principal list off name after name as students walk across the stage to accept their diplomas. In a shocking turn of events, neither Stiles nor Lydia were valedictorians of their class. Instead, it came as a surprise to everyone when it became public knowledge that Greenberg isn’t the dumbass everyone thought him to be. The ceremony is boring, and hot, and terrible, and still hot, so he checks out for most of it and instead imagines himself back at the Stilinski house, in the air conditioning, listening to the pack laugh and whoop as they celebrate their latest in a long line of achievements.  He catches the important parts, clapping and smiling as Allison, Boyd, Isaac, Scott, Lydia, Danny, and Erica all take their diplomas and walk back to their seats.

As the principal bellows Stiles’ name into the microphone, Derek and the Sheriff cheer obnoxiously. Even from a distance they both can see Stiles rolling his eyes. It brings Derek an unreasonable amount of glee.

“How’d he manage to get away with Stiles and not his birth name?”

John laughs. “He got tired of hearing how badly the principal butchered it during the run-through.”

After all the pomp and circumstance they head to the Stilinskis for a barbecue and a pack sleepover. There’s meat, a few drinks of dubious legality that also may or may not be spiked with a specific plant, and a number of unfortunate incidents involving a frisbee, but when no one is hurt they chalk it up as a win. As the night winds down and people start drifting off to sleep in the living room, Derek and Stiles move to sit on the back deck. 

They stay up late into the night, curled around each other under a blanket, looking at the night sky and talking about all the things they want to do now that school isn’t holding Stiles’ time hostage for a few months. Trips to the beach, camping, going on a date that doesn’t end in disaster, and most importantly, finishing Derek’s Disney education. Stiles has a few movies left to show him, and it has been firmly established with the pack that Disney nights are just for the two of them.

As the weeks go by, nothing and everything changes between them, and the adjustment period Derek had been anticipating never comes. There’s only comfort and familiarity when they’re together, with or without the pack, and it feels as though, no matter where they wound up in life, they were always going to end up right here. They still argue, especially when one or both of them is being particularly stubborn. That's never going to stop, but they're a little more careful with their words now.

When the Hale house is more or less finished, Derek takes Stiles out to the property to walk him through the new place. It’s all vaulted ceilings and warm honey brown with cream accents, light and airy and it feels as though Derek has managed to bring the woods into his home and make it inviting and comfortable. Stiles is in awe, quickly zipping from one room to another, all long limbs and enthusiasm, grinning from ear to ear, excited both for Derek to finally be out of the loft for good and for the pack to have a place with air conditioning and a lack of parents where they can gather and just act like kids for a little while longer. They have the summer and they have each other, and Derek's heart swells.

They eat dinner together in the new kitchen, and it’s the first time Stiles stays the night without falling asleep to a movie first. 

Over the next week everyone claims one room or another, but those who are choosing to stay nearby for the next little while get first pick. Danny takes the only room with no windows and the best air conditioning, to keep all the equipment Derek bought him cool and in working order. He stays at home with his parents, so he doesn’t have a full bedroom at the house, but he does have a pull-out couch for whenever he needs to crash after a long day of research. Allison has the room with the best view of the property and an adjoining bathroom, which she shares with Lydia, who takes the room next to her. Isaac and Boyd take the bedrooms on the lower level so they don’t keep everyone awake when they have their all night Call of Duty marathons. Erica takes the last room on the second floor, the one with the most natural light. Scott takes what was going to be Stiles’ room, now that Stiles will be sharing Derek’s. Stiles doesn’t stake a claim on anything. He has what he wants.

A family fills the house again. That’s all that really matters.

One night, as the rest of the pack leaves for pizza and a movie, Derek gifts Stiles what used to be, and will be again, the library, his part of the house to do as he wants. It’s a sign of permanency that feels right, that Stiles will have parts of himself embedded in these walls as the house settles and fills around them. He imagines the walls covered in books, can visualize Stiles’ murder board sitting in the back right corner, right where the sunlight will reflect his handiwork best. He sees Star Wars posters and notes littering the floor, a small cot in the corner where Stiles will sleep when he’s up too late doing filling in the missing pieces of the bestiary. 

The room is little, and still slightly broken, but it’s good.

He looks over at Stiles and smiles. It’s so, so good.

**Author's Note:**

> After three years, _it is done_.
> 
> Thank you all for following along. I love you so much. I'm piratefalls on tumblr if you ever wanna chat. I'm in different fandoms now, but always looking for new people to talk to.
> 
> Also, this epilogue is un-beta'd. If it's garbage, that's all my fault.


End file.
